The present invention is directed to providing emergency service responsive to a plurality of easy-to-remember numbers, and, more specifically, to a system and method that routes calls to an answering point that serves the area where the call was made responsive to any of the world's recognized emergency services numbers and to provide rapid selection of language support for such calls.
Many, if not most, of the countries in the world have easy-to-remember emergency services telephone numbers that connect a caller to an emergency services operator. Most of these emergency services telephone numbers comprise two or three easy to remember digits. Some countries use one emergency services telephone number for all emergencies and some countries use a separate emergency services telephone number for fire, ambulance and police emergencies. Further, the GSM wireless service standard requires that the emergency services telephone number is 1-1-2, wherever in the world the GSM standard is implemented.
It is therefore incumbent on a traveler to know the various emergency services numbers of the country he or she is in and to know what number to dial from a specific type of telephone. A person living in the United States or Canada dials 9-1-1 for all emergency services. When that person travels to Austria, for example, she or he must know that the number to dial for police is 1-3-3, for ambulance is 1-4-4 and for fire is 1-2-2. Furthermore, if that person is using GSM-based mobile telephone service in Austria, the number to dial for all emergency services is 1-1-2.
While these differences may seem trivial, a person dialing an emergency services number is very likely to be under stress and therefore less likely to remember the finer points of unfamiliar emergency dialing plans, if he or she knew them in the first instance. The person may also be using a telephone with an unfamiliar user interface (e.g., a borrowed or rented mobile telephone). Even if the person dials the correct emergency services number, there may be a problem determining the caller's language and finding an emergency services operator that speaks that language or finding a translator to work with the emergency services operator. One common issue that emergency services operators encounter is that the more time it takes to communication with a caller, the more upset the caller will be. If an emergency call takes subjectively “too long” to set up, the caller is likely to disconnect and start the process over again.
Therefore, there is a problem in the art that a person trying to place an emergency call in a foreign jurisdiction using his or her home country's emergency services telephone number is likely to have problems finding the right emergency access code and then overcoming the language barrier.